The Haitian Revolution
Comparative History and Research
Professor Kosiorek
January 31, 2022 (4:30 AM)
Brent Stone
Unlike the American and French Revolutions, I knew next to nothing about the Haitian Revolution prior to this class. I have heard Haiti being mentioned in the news from time to time, but that is it. One hobby of mine is an interest in demographics. I enjoy looking up the demographics of various countries. Aside from a brief foray into the demographics of Haiti I am not in the habit of giving it much thought unless I happen to read about some natural disasters that took place there.
As noted in Avengers of the New World, and in various articles online, the French were perhaps more deviously imaginative than most nations when it came to the punishments or torture of slaves. Men like William Wilberforce were in too short a supply outside of Britain in this bygone age and especially in Saint Dominique which would later become Haiti. Where slavery was concerned, profit was concerned also. While slave-owners did not set out to become evil, many became such when profit overshadowed all else, and their cruelty was a factor in the Haitian Revolution. Was this the spark that lit the fuse? More directly, what started or caused the Revolution in Haiti?
It really started with the Declaration of the Rights of Man which bore many of the sentiments of enlightenment ideas regarding freedom and liberty. It was drawn up by the Marquis De Lafayette and his friend Thomas Jefferson, among others. This occurred in 1789 at a time when only a very small group of people in Europe could have predicted how much blood and terror the French Revolution would unleash. Had it not been for this, a radical new government, which in so many ways could be viewed as the well-intended fruit of the many Enlightenment ideas, the Royal government would never have granted citizenship to slaves. In historical hindsight, ending slavery was one of the few things the National Assembly could have bragging rights on.
The ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’ which was inspired by so many enlightenment ideas, as well as the American Revolution, in some ways got the ball rolling for the Revolution in France. And of course, the Revolutionary government of France started the ball rolling in what would be Haiti when it would abolish slavery throughout the empire. And of course, once freedom was given, taking it back as France under Napoleon wanted to do would mean a fight for freedom.
A list of the major players is fitting in order to better understand the Haitian Revolution. Principally, this would first involve slaves from Africa. It is estimated that around one third of all the slaves brought from Africa were sent to Haiti. The Spanish came before any other Europeans, and they were more interested in gold than anything else. So, when they had exhausted what they felt were the available amounts of gold in what would become Haiti, many of them wanted to concentrate their gold mining efforts in other places such as Mexico or South America.
Colonists were another group of people as well as those who were known as people of color, which were people whose parents were rich aristocrats who had relations with African women who were more like concubines. They were known as affranchis. While they were not granted many rights and privileges enjoyed by the white colonists, they could own property and of course many of them were well off financially. Some of them were educated in Britain and France.
After 1492 when Columbus arrived in the Americas (the west indies) but not lots of gold, he later suggested that the natives themselves could be a reliable source of income if they were put to work as slaves. While Queen Isabella of Spain disliked the idea, King Ferdinand thought it was a good suggestion. However, the natives of the west indies were not used to the sort of work their Spanish masters had in mind. And not being used to such work and plagued by the diseases brought by the Europeans for which they had no immunity, around 95% of the Indigenous population, a people known as the Taino and Arawak died off. The issue of where to get more slaves was soon solved by procuring slaves from Africa, and while stronger and heartier than the natives or former inhabitants of the islands, they were not immune to exhaustion, disease, cruelty, or despair either. But shamefully, most Europeans did not seem to care.
The French took over from the Spanish and named the western part of the island Saint Dominique. In the 1700's Saint Dominique was known to export 40% of the sugar used in Europe and 60% of the coffee used in Europe. It was at that time, for the French, their claim to fame in the Caribbean and a definite source of income. But while it might have been heaven for French colonists who were unable or unwilling to put themselves in another person's shoes, it was in general, miserable slavery for most Africans and hell for other Africans who had cruel and sadistic masters.
In the western part of the island that the Spanish left and the French acquired, there was no true cohesiveness in society from the late1500's to the late 1700s and a seeming uneasy peace reigned. Splintered into many diverse groups in society, ranging from the very black to the very white, society was divided, and rights accorded according to how black or white someone's skin was. Well, of course, under those conditions, how could the very black feel that they had anything in common with the very white? And when you consider that 90% of the population of the Island was in the darker shades, I cannot help but wonder why the ruling class did not even consider the possible yet proverbial handwriting on the wall. And the lighter shades of people known as affranchis, had dreams and goals of their own. They wanted to be like the Europeans and yet they were hampered by the fact that their skin color prevented it, at least according to the etiquette and rules of society imposed by Europeans.
The vast majority of the 90% of the population of Saint Dominique were involved in field labor of one sort or another, although most slaves worked on sugar plantations. Dying of hunger and overwork would not have raised heads or ire as it would in today's culture and society. Yet again, where slavery was concerned, profit was also concerned. And the sad reality was that profit, not concern for the slave was the main interest of most slave-owners. Undoubtedly this was an underlying motivation for the Revolution in the minds and hearts of many slaves. And as time went on in the 1770's the affranchis became increasingly disillusioned with the racism of the Europeans and their refusal to grant any rights not based on skin color. And disillusionment became resentment. This was acerbated by the unfeeling retribution of slave-owners to any slaves who tried to escape or defy them in any way. It was acerbated also by the French Revolution which was occurring at that point as well as the instability and confusion that the powers of Europe created when they attacked one another, broke treaties, and declared war. There was various uprising on the Island in the late 1770's where religions and civil leaders rallied and fought for freedom and where the perpetrators, after eluding capture, would attack again, only to be captured and executed by the French Government on the Island. A man named Vincent Oge led such an uprising and was captured, and after being tortured, was executed. Tensions and frustrations on the part of the slaves and affranchis were beginning to find little holes in the dam that would soon burst altogether. And in the late 1780's things were happening in France that would directly affect Saint Dominique.
In the month of May 1791, the Revolutionary government of France bestowed citizenship on the wealthier affranchis, but the governor of Saint Dominique refused to follow the order, as did much of the European population. The idea of cause and effect seems to have been lost on the Europeans and predictably, what had been a tense situation of racial frustration on the part of the affranchis went from isolated fisticuffs to multiple tens of thousands of slaves rising and taking part in a rebellion. The colonists and Europeans could see the handwriting on the wall now and to appease the affranchis, they offered them full citizenship in order to quell what they saw as a rising tide of rebellion that they would not be able to control or survive.
Although many affranchis had been granted citizenship, there were still rival factions that prevented any return to peace as it had been known. And this was complicated by the fact that the Spanish, who controlled the eastern of of the Island, known as Santo Domingo, supported some factions while the British who occupied Jamaica supported other factions. Around 1795 an educated and incredibly talented former slave named Toussaint Louverture, who had been able to exert military control over parts of Saint Dominique, was able to secure the cooperation of some French Agents. He gave the appearance of allegiance to France, perhaps to put them off guard, but he had his own agenda and his own ideas about what freedom on Saint Dominique would look like. And part of his mode of operation was to include the British in his negotiations. In a sense he was playing one foreign power against another to buy time and consolidate his hold on the western half of the island. Toussaint Louverture was eventually able to subdue all of Saint Dominique. With his military successes he named himself governor for life. Toussaint Louverture put the plantations of Saint Dominique under military occupation which meant that many of the peasants returned to work on the plantations. Many of the proprietors of the plantations on the western part of the Island were encouraged by Toussaint to return and it is likely that Toussaint intended that this would help paint a good image.
Toussaint however would end up dying on April 7th, 1803, in a French prison. Napoleon had sent his brother-in-law late in 1801 with the intent of establishing French control over the Island once again. There were several months of fighting between Toussaint and Charles Leclerc before Toussaint agreed to an armistice in the month of May 1802. The French then broke the agreement and Toussaint was sent to France and imprisoned. When Toussaint was taken prisoner, the French re-instituted the caste system and this enraged many former affranchis who had come to treasure the rights and privileges granted them by the Revolutionary government of France.
Toussaint was in prison in France where he would die, but his lieutenants and the leaders of other groups were united and determined under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe. The odds were intimidating since the battle-hardened French were a world power and militarily superior. Added to this were reports that the French under Napoleon had returned to using slaves on other islands. This would result in a firm resolve on the part of Jean-Jacques Dessalines and those under him not to follow suit, but to resist militarily. There were two favorable factors that benefited Jean-Jacques and his followers. Napoleon's able general, Charles Leclerc died of the yellow fever. Because the French could no longer use Saint Dominique due to the Rebellion, it had lost a significant avenue or revenue. Subsequently, Napoleon decided to sell France's land in the new world to the United States. And when the French and the British continued hostilities in 1803, France no longer had the time or resources to spare in order to bring Saint Dominique under French control. When the Haitian forces under Dessalines defeated the French at their last stronghold of Cap-Francais (which became Cap - Haitien) in November 1803 in the battle of Vertieres, this became even more obvious. On January 1st, 1804, the entire island was pronounced independent. And Saint Dominique would thereafter be known as Haiti which was the original name of the island in the Arawak language.
Sources
Laurent DUBOIS. 2004. Avengers of the New World : The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=282428&site=ehost-live.
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Haitian Revolution." Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Haitian-Revolution.
